Dineo Khabele, M.D., associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Cancer Biology, has been named to the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF).
Khabele joins Celeste Leigh Pearce, Ph.D., MPH, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan, and Daniel Powell Jr., Ph.D., research associate professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of the Cellular Therapy Tissue Facility at the University of Pennsylvania, on the committee, which reviews and approves all OCRF research grants.
Founded in 1994, OCRF awards financial support grants to researchers working to better understand, identify, treat and potentially cure ovarian cancer. The fund has awarded more than $65 million to ovarian cancer research scientists at nearly 70 leading medical centers.
According to the National Cancer Institute, ovarian cancer causes more deaths than any other female reproductive system cancer and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in the United States. The disease often presents with subtle symptoms and is usually diagnosed at late stages.
“I am honored to assist OCRF and the Scientific Advisory Committee in the critically important effort to provide financial support for the most promising research in ovarian cancer,” said Khabele, who treats VUMC patients with gynecologic cancers and operates a research laboratory focused on ovarian cancer.
Khabele received her Bachelor of Arts and her M.D. from Columbia University, New York. After residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at The New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill-Cornell University Medical Center, she completed a clinical fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology and post-doctoral research training in Cancer Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
She joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2008.
